Earlier today the South African Time Trial Championships were held at and around the Moses Mabhida Stadium, KwaZulu-Natal. After finishing second for three consecutive years, Jay Thomson once again took the silver medal, just behind Daryl Impey (Orica-GreenEdge). Jaco Venter finished just off the podium in fourth place.

Reflecting on his performance, Thomson was still pleased with how the race panned out, “Today I set out with the goal of riding between 390-400 watts and I think I managed 393 watts. I am really happy to be pushing those sorts of watts this early in the season. Obviously it is a bit frustrating to be second for the fourth year in a row but in the same breath I am very happy with where I am at the moment.” Thomson continued, “The course today was also one of the better ones we’ve had for SA’s, there were a lot of twists and turns which made it rather interesting. In the end, I can’t complain losing to Daryl. He is a world class rider.”

In the u23 race, Louis Meintjes managed to retain his title he won last year with an exceptional ride. Coming in 1:53 ahead of silver medallist, Nicholas Dougall (World Cycling Centre Africa), Louis was happy with his performance, “It was a very nice course with some corners this year and then the wind really picked up as well which also made it quite challenging but yes, I’m very happy to have won the u23 title again.” When quizzed on his performance relative to the elites, Meintjes was again rather pleased, “Well firstly the focus was to make sure I won the u23 title but yes it was really nice to compare myself to the elites. Last year I was fourth overall so to finish with the third best time this year was a good result.”

Looking ahead, Thomson takes a lot of confidence into the road race on Sunday, “I am really looking forward to Sunday now, we have an incredible team here and I’m really happy with where my form is at leading in to the road race.” Meintjes agreed, “The whole team is going well. It is not going to be an easy circuit because it’s up and down the whole time with some areas exposed to the wind. It will be a really hard race but I am looking forward to it.”